Guilty Crown: Afterstory
by Firedrakon
Summary: The continuation of the Anime Guilty Crown - Shu now lives in the new Tokyo, but can't get adapted to his new life - his apartment is too big, and his life is too empty; then one day, after falling asleep he dreams of Inori. And the dream feels too real. He later is brought inside Da'ath's world, and he explains everything: the reason why he appeared and why Inori has not died.
1. Chapter 1 - Bare

Nothing ended that day.

It could have, if I had wanted it to.

If I had wanted to let go of Inori.

If I had wanted to… forget her.

How could I possibly ever want to forget her?

She was everything to me.

During Tokyo's 'purification' carried out on behalf of the GHQ, after Hare had died, I had taken refuge in Inori's hearth.

She had been my oasis.

And then…

And then she sacrificed herself.

I never wanted her to do it. Not even if it was the only way.

I would have wanted to be in her place.

I would have wanted to die with her.

Having lost Gui, killed by my very own hands, and Inori, I've decided to live for the sole purpose of remembering who they were and what they did.

They **_deserve_** to be **_remembered_**.

That was long ago.

Today is the day 15th July of 2042, also written 15/07/2042.

3 years have passed since the 4th apocalypse.

Tokyo was rebuilt, with technology sent from neighboring nations that were able to confirm the hostility coming from Japan originated from within the GHQ.

Without their help, we probably would have never managed to make it.

The start of the reconstruction… I never saw it. I was transferred to a neighboring city that had been partially spared from the destruction of the Apocalypse Virus.

And I wish I could tell you what I saw. But I can't…

Not too long after the city was rebuilt, we all moved back in, and really quickly, people started to blend back into their usual lives. Now, I rarely hear anyone shout in Tokyo.

There is a lot of noise, like there always is, but there have been no gunshots, no riots nor protests. Recently, it seems there have been almost no thieves circulating the streets: perhaps it's safer now.

But I'll get to more of that later. First, I'll tell you who I am.

My name is Shu Ouma. I'm 21 now… from a couple of days, I think.

I try hard not to think about my age.

As I go through one more year, it just means I lived my life without purpose for another year… while in pain… without Inori…

I live in Tokyo. I was one of the main members in Funeral Parlor when they overthrew the GHQ.

And above all… I am blind.

After Inori sacrificed herself, I became blind.

I don't know why.

I've always tried to find a logical explanation to it, but there's nothing that can come to mind.

All I can think of is…

 _This is my punishment for letting go of her._

I can't know what is happening in front of me unless I hear noise or voices, and I depend on everyone around me now.

Ayase, Tsugumi, Sota, Yahiro… all of them. Exactly like I never wanted to.

When I moved in an apartment of a new skyscraper in Tokyo after the reconstruction, I got used my surroundings only thanks to them. They basically drew a map in my brain by making me go around, touch things and giving me directions on where was what.

It was not long after I moved in that I started to have nightmares.

The first night in the apartment had been horrific; I had dreamt the moment Inori had died.

Only this time, _I could have saved her_.

And I hadn't done anything.

I had just watched, as she got covered in crystals, reached out for my lips and, with her dying breath, said: "You could have saved me".

I hadn't slept for 3 days after that dream.

Most of the dreams revolved around that day: the chaos all around, Endlaves shooting guns, me fighting Gai, and then… Inori…

Recently, they had become more realistic every night. They felt even _more_ _real_ when I was awake.

I decided not to think about it: it's most likely already dark outside; I'll fall asleep quickly.

"Bleep. Bleep."

It's 00:00 now. It's the only alarm I set. Or, let me reword that, it's the only alarm Yahiro set for me on my alarm clock. I think I asked him… because I wanted to know.

I wanted to know if a day had just ended.

I can't tell with the situation I'm in.

'I'm playing the self pity card again' I thought, 'If Gai were here, he would give me a proper scolding for it…"

But he isn't here.

He can't be, even if I wanted him to.

Is this the man he wanted me to be? Did he want me to cry myself to sleep?

I don't think so.

But he never could have imagined Inori would have died without me.

Nor could I have.

I'm sitting on an armchair in the living room. The chair is soft, and it makes me feel like I'm about to drown.

I need to get out of it fast before I fall asleep again.

I stand up with a creak of the armchair, take my walking stick, and head towards the bedroom. To do so, I need to exit the living room from the right side and go down the hall for 2 meters.

Nothing too impressive.

Definitely, not as impressive as the things I use to be able to do…

If I haven't mentioned it yet, I can't use my power anymore.

I don't know why.

After Inori's death, and me loosing sight, apparently, people stopped believing I was looking at them, maybe, and ignored me.

Or, maybe, my power changed and required me to look at people and _see_ them.

The only time I tried to pull out a void I ended up having to explain to the police why I had grabbed a woman's breast.

I walked into my bedroom and, using the walking stick, I got to the bed, took off my heavy clothes quickly and decided it was time to stop thinking about sad things.

'You can't save them anymore. If you could, you would be right to keep on reminding yourself about it, but you can't. It's not going to help you in any way if you keep on thinking about it.' I said silently

"Yawn" came out of my mouth without me being able to stop it.

It was time to rest.

I patted my bed a couple of times, opened the blanket, got inside, closed my eyes and, shortly after, I opened them again.

 _But I wasn't in my room anymore._

I couldn't feel the bed beneath me anymore: all I saw was darkness. I was standing on my feet in front of… something.

I can't see clearly, it's too dark, but I can feel something under my toes. There is a wall that leads down vertically. Like a hole.

'Stay calm. It is just a dream. Just a dream. Just a dream.' I lost my balance.

"Fuck!"

My feet slipped in a way I would've been dead meat if I hadn't shifted all my weight towards where I'd been standing.

Close. Far too close for my taste.

'Damn that was close.' I thought, my brain close to panicking.

Although I had lost my eyesight, I could still have dreams, and _see_ things in them. Not only that, the last thing I saw was _her_ dying. Which wasn't exactly good since it had been the last visual memory before I became blind.

So everything I saw with my eyes in my dreams reminded me of her… The way the crystals had slowly climbed up both our bodies, her eyes becoming covered in crystals, her handing to me rubber bands in square shapes, telling me "Take it", and then… fading out into the distance.

After that, nothing.

I barely managed to stay alive by being rescued by a helicopter right before drowning…

I cried my eyes out that day.

It would have been the end of me: I already knew.

I guess I was right.

There is nothing more I can do, and I'm like Ayase, only that I can't connect to an Endlave unit…

Which, as unfortunate as it may be, won't grant me sight since a part of my cerebrum was damaged.

I had managed to ruin my life big time.

This hole… reminds me so much of how I am now.

Empty.

Powerless.

Dead, in a nutshell.

I hadn't seen something this terrifying since Hare had been crystalized…

The only thing that had ever made me feel more terrified than this… was the dream about Inori.

My eyes had somehow managed to the darkness: I started seeing more clearly what was around me. The pit seems to be circular, and there is nothing around it except for rocks.

It pulses with darkness, almost like it's calling for me.

'I need to look. This must have I meaning'

3

2

1

.

.

.

I looked down, where I thought the hole was.

And then, I heard a faint sound.

A voice so far away,

It seemed to come from the very bottom of that void.

"Shu" called out a voice "Shu, help me!"

 _It's her voice!_

"Inori! Where are you?"

"Help me, Shu!" she repeated, louder this time. "Come save me!"

"How? Are you okay?" I shout in reply.

No answer.

I can't think of anything. The only thing I hear is my gutter feeling and it says: "Jump! Go save her!"

"Shu! Please! I can't hold on anymore!" she cries desperately.

It doesn't matter. If I'm going to die right here and try to save her, I won't care. I had waited too long for this chance. I dove straight down, head first, reaching out towards her.

"Shu!"

"Inori!"

I kept hearing her voice, but I couldn't make out what she was saying. While I was falling, the wind covered every sound. Even my attempts of calling out her name ended being vain.

I must have been rapidly falling to my death.

Then, I felt something soft grab my arm.

I couldn't see anything, but I could tell it was her.

She had that soft touch…

Something that was so unique I had never forgotten.

It scared me.

It felt too real.

Too real to even be one of _my_ dreams.

She dragged herself towards me, hugged me, kissed me on the cheek, got close to my ear and whispered:

"Shu, please. Come save me." It was the last thing I heard, before the dream started to fade, Inori with it.

I emerged from the darkness.


	2. Chapter 2 - Analysis

I woke up drenched in sweat with cold blood flowing through my veins.

I'm freezing.

The bed under me feels the Mediterranean Sea. Warm sometimes, freezing others.

It had happened again.

"Inori…." I said her name, tried to recall a good memory with her. And I couldn't.

'I want to die'

I wrapped my head in my arms.

A tear trickled down my cheek.

Then another one.

And another one.

And before I knew it, I could feel my entire face covered in tears.

It had all been a dream. It was still so vivid in my mind; reality was less real than that… nightmare.

Yes. Nightmare.

I reached out towards the side of my bed to tap on the lamp sitting beneath me, which Sota had bought saying: "When you are not having a good time, light this up. It'll help!"

And then I remembered.

That light.

would never.

be able.

to eliminate the darkness.

 _My_ darkness.

My apartment is nothing impressive. I didn't buy it to have it look good, anyway. I don't know the exact details, but I know it doesn't even have a great view. It's on the 3rd floor of the Xersda skyscraper, one of the biggest of central Tokyo, with almost 100 floors. Being on the 3rd floor, in one of the most stuffed cities of all times, meant only seeing other scrapers.

'So I'm not exactly missing out on much, huh?' I thought, bitterly.

I stood up and made my way to the corridor, utilizing the metal bars that had been conveniently attached to the opposite wall.

Damn Shibungi. I owed him one.

I wonder if there's even one of my friends I don't owe one to.

After the prevention of the 4th apocalypse, Shibungi had been hired as an inventor at one of those companies… something like GHQ without the Virus and madmen. They developed technology. Shibungi from then seemed he wanted to move mankind forward.

Who can blame him for that?

When I got to the end of the metal bar, it took me a bit to understand where I needed to go.

'That's the living room. That's the kitchen. There's the washroom!'

I started moving towards the toilet carefully. I didn't want to trip and hit my head hard like it had happened recently.

Nosebleeds were a pain in the ass. Especially if you're blind, and you can't see where the blood is.

I opened the door, and quickly shut it behind me. If I turned too many times, I could have ended up going out the door, and that isn't something I want to do.

I'm not too familiar with this place, and it would be hard to remember where the shower was, if no one had given me instructions on where things were.

Sigh…

I tried to remember. On the first day, Sota and the others had come over to make sure I was comfy enough and I knew where things were.

I'm glad they did.

It's just…

Sigh.

Ayase had been kind enough to teach me where things were.

First, she had given me oral instructions, and then she made me go around and touch things to make sure I knew what I was in the place I wanted to be.

"The toilet is the first thing on the right, and the sink is the first thing on the left. The shower is just a couple of steps ahead to the left. It's not too hard!" she had told me, probably smiling.

But I couldn't tell.

And another tear trickled down my cheek.

I know this place isn't what it means to me. It's not a prison, it's a home, but a prison is what it feels like to me. It's the place in which I'm confined now that I'm blind.

I rarely go out, since I need someone to come along. I'm not that good at walking with the stick just yet, so sometimes I hit my head pretty hard. Thank God I didn't manage to hit my head on any rocks…

I just said God.

I guess… I don't have the luxury of praying someone hoping things will get better.

I learnt that a long time ago, when I had to fight an entire nation of Endlaves and a race-exterminating virus. It's not that I hate people who believe in God…it's just that, after everything that happened; I no longer believe that there is anyone that can control the fate of this planet, he can only watch and try to change the future.

But he can't stop people from doing evil things if they are really willing to.

Also… the apartment feels too big. After mom got transferred to a reformatory in America, I had to get used to living alone again. And I don't like it.

Plus, why have so much space when you have no one to share it with?

It's too damn pointless.

I took off my pajamas. The temperature of the room is decent, a little cool as a toilet needs to be, but not too cold. I got in the shower, set the water temperature to medium cool with one of those retro handles and I turned on the water. After a few seconds, it started coming down.

'Ah! It's freezing!'

The water _was_ freezing, as a matter of fact.

Even more than usual.

'Strange. Usually it's not this cold'

Wait… what? If it wasn't the water being cold… had I caught a fever? I place my hand above my forehead and… Ouch! What the heck?! I'm burning up like a furnace! What happened?

I didn't have time to think about it. I formulated that question, then I lost my balance, fell down and bang! My head hit the shower's wall. I hear someone scream, steps, weird noises.

What's happening?

It could have been just my imagination again.

I simply waited there, knowing what would come.

And then I blacked out.

"How pathetic"

I open my eyes… and, to my surprise, all suddenly, I'm no longer in my shower! I'm in a place that looks like a war zone from a couple of years ago…

Wait. This scene looks too familiar.

'It's…!' I thought 'But how…?!'

That place was exactly like Tokyo… if the 4th apocalypse would have taken place. That's why it is so familiar.

Gai had shown it to me.

There are crystals everywhere; towers made of crystal, staircases made of crystal, even objects that looked like plants made out of crystals...!

I was standing on one of the staircases to the top of a tower…

'Wait. This dream. This place. I might find him!'

So I turned where he stood then, and I saw the figure of a human. But it wasn't him. He was taller, and had darker clothes: this person looked like they had just walked out of heaven: dressed in white.

And then my eyesight stopped being foggy.

I regretted thinking it was someone from heaven. It was him. Da'ath. Doth. Death. You choose. Standing right before me, with a big ass white cloak, looking down on me with a disappointed expression, stood that same person that tried to stop me from getting to Inori and saving the world from the Apocalypse.

And he doesn't look happy.

Heck, I bet I look even less happy.

I hate him.

"So you have managed to do it." He said, "You have managed to make yourself miserable. Congratulations!"

"Why am I here? What do you want?" I ask him.

"Want? I don't really _want_ anything, Shu Ouma. I've only come to warn you. I have decided, since Gai died, you can no longer use the power of voids in your state, and no one has created another Void Genome, I will become Adam."

"What sort of joke is this?"

"No joke. It's the truth. But I guess I need to go in chronological order to make _you_ understand. You're slow."


	3. Chapter 3 - 48 Hours - or less

What did he mean with "I will become Adam"?

'It can't be…'

I hope I'm wrong.

"To start off, GHQ hasn't been disbanded as you thought. Many people, still loyal to the Chief, have decided to join me to achieve his goal."

 _What?_ I thought GHQ had been exterminated by the foreign nations!

"Which is?"

"The cleansing of the world and a new beginning for humanity."

I felt my heart go out of beat.

Cleanse? From what? People like him, that's what the world should be liberated from!

"Do you really think that would solve all problems there are?"

"Yes, all of them." He replies, with a smirk.

"Ok, then technically you still have a small group of people following you. What am I supposed to worry about?"

"We have _her_ "

'Oh god. No. It can't be real'

"Yes, you know of who I am talking about. Inori." He confirmed

"But… How…"

He shrugged his shoulders; "We don't fully know ourselves. We created a new vessel for Mana to inhabit. However, it seems like her twin beat her to it. But."

"But what?" I ask, my heartbeat already out the roof.

"But, since she is still unconscious and tired because she is trying to adopt to the new body, I'll simply take her as a bride while she sleeps."

I knew he wasn't lying. He looked too damn confident to be lying. Inori is really alive.

Inori…

Alive…

Then, I felt a scorch of anger boil inside me. And it grew, expanded in my entire chest until it felt like I was going in flames.

All that time wasted.

All that lost sleep.

And this _bastard_ was just going to take Inori?!

"I need to go now. To prepare for my future wife! What a delight." He chuckled.

"She will never accept you." Escaped my mouth.

"What did you say?"

"She will never accept you!" I shouted

"Oh, she doesn't have to. I just need to marry her before she starts talking. Her approval won't be a problem. Just like last time, I need to fit a ring on her hand and pronounce the oath of blood."

"And then? What?"

"I'll summon Mana to inhabit her body. She'll be my bride and we'll clean this world from all the filth."

I felt a pain in the stomach. A big one. And I had a bad feeling about this dream.

"Why tell me? And why before you have?"

"Oh, isn't that obvious? I want to see you little miserable desperate fool try and stop me and beg me not to kill Inori to summon Mana."

What?! Kill?!

"You didn't say anything about killing!"

"Oops. I guess it just slipped through without thinking."

I was done. I couldn't hold back anymore. I attack him.

"You think you can do anything you want to anyone? One day, I'll get you!"

"Oh my," he said while dodging, "it seems you have lost your temper. How unfortunate!"

I landed a hit. I didn't know if he did it on purpose, but probably not. He was bleeding, and didn't look too happy about it.

"YOU BASTARD!" he shouts, before punching me in the stomach.

Then, he takes out a knife and slashes it near my face. Thankfully, I dodge it. He only managed to get a scratch on me.

"I'm tired of playing around with you. You're no fun when you can move around freely." He said "Go back and have fun in your little hospital bed, while I marry Inori. And also, try stopping me if you can. I'm sure it will make us laugh!"

Us…?

That was the last image. The world faded away, together with its crystals and the only human alive, Da'ath.

I woke up abruptly, tried to look around. Nothing.

'Sigh'

Am I in a hospital? Back home?

No. I definitely wasn't in the shower.

I felt something warm touch my hand.

"Hey" spoke a voice.

"Hi" I replied.

"Good thing you're awake. We were all worried about you, you know?"

"Who?"

"The team. They were all over here, but it got late. They went home a couple of hours ago. How are you feeling?"

"A bit… concussed."

"Well, you did hit your head in the shower."

That's right. How had I gotten there? And how had they managed to get in the apartment?

"How did you guys know I got hurt?"

"Seems like you don't remember what day it is today."

Today… the 16th of July. Right.

"What's so important about it?"

"It's the anniversary of your birth, Shu."

My… birthday? I had stopped celebrating that long ago. After the disaster, I didn't exactly want to remember another year had gone by. It just meant I had lived one more year without a reason to do so.

"So?" I asked.

"We wanted to throw a surprise party. But when we managed to sneak into your house, we found you in the shower."

I blushed. Had they seen me… naked?

"Ayase" I said "You let Yahiro help me, right?"

"He wasn't there yet. I had to do it with Tsugumi."

I must have been completely red. I felt like that, at least.

"Don't worry, we got some help from other people to… take care of things."

"How are you doing?" I ask her.

"Not that great. You know, it's something like 10 in the evening."

If I slept 8 hours, like I normally do, they had come to my apartment at around 9. Maybe a little earlier. Which meant I was in the hospital from 10 am to 10 pm. 12 hours. She had waited for me all that time.

"You should go home too." I told her.

"I was waiting for you to wake up. I wanted to make sure you were okay."

I felt my heart melt and wash down a drain. I was hopeless.

How can _I_ save Inori?


	4. Chapter 4 - Proxy

"How do you plan on making him come here, majesty?"

"I don't; I know he'll come."

"Majesty, considering the information you have gathered on the current Shu Ouma, taking a wild guess, I would say he'll come. Not without his eyesight."

I smirked.

"I know. That's why I already have sent someone to… miraculously grant him a wish."

The scientist looked at Da'ath, horrified.

"It was still in development!" he shouts

"It works. We tested. And it lasts for a whole lifeline, so he won't have problems. He'll come here running as soon as he can."

Da'ath turned, and started walking towards the altar. Inori was lying on a bed next to it, unconscious.

'The red crystals… they're so beautiful. Soon, very soon I will get all the pieces in place to awake Mana.'

Inori couldn't move. She was struggling in her sleep, at least, that's what it looked like; she could barely move.

'Heh. Pathetic.'

"You're so much like your Adam, Eve. Weak and useless"

Inori turned in her sleep.

Guess she's not waking up… today.

"Get me a direct contact with the news broadcasters. As soon as he's on the run, I'll cloud the news for a while with interference. We need to avoid his friends coming along. We want to make sure he's alone, so that we can take him down."

"As you wish, Your Majesty."

"And remember: we need to either take him down in front of her or keep him alive until he's in front of her to kill him."

The scientist nodes, and slips back into the shadows.

Soon.

Soon Shu Ouma would be captured.

"Heh. I can't believe he believed what I said. He knows, GHQ doesn't like being honest. Nor am I a recommendable person."

But he will come. I know it.

"Good luck to you, Shu Ouma. You'll need it."

I walk back into the shadows.

'Soon. Very soon. Mana will marry me.'

I started wondering.

If it was real.

If I had dreamt it or not.

 _If I was really living._

Sigh.

"Ayase, I'm ok. You should be home."

"Will you be alright?"

I wanted to tell her. About that awful dream. About Inori and what Da'ath planned on doing to her…

"Ok then I'll get going. Take care, will ya?"

She started to walk away.

"Ayase."

"What?"

"If when you come back, I'm not here anymore, I've gone save Inori."

I didn't know how she reacted. I heard silence for a couple of seconds, and then steps.

Step.

Step.

Step.

Door creak.

Silence.

What am I going to do now? As long as I am like this, I can't save Inori! I can't even get close to her. How can I save her?

"Is she gone?" asks a voice.

I flinched. Someone had managed to come in unheard. It wasn't very common.

"Who are you?"

"Pssst! Don't blow my cover!"

'Something's wrong here.'

"I came here since I heard you had been hospitalized. I'm sorry, Shu."

"Who are you again?"

"Don't you recognize me? Oh. Right. That's why I came here. I'm Shibungi"

Weird. I didn't think he would come visit me.

"Why did you come here?"

"Because I know about your dream. And about why you think you can't get Inori back."

I bit my lip. How could he know?

"Anyways" he said "I won't get into how I managed to violate your privacy, but listen. There _is_ a way of getting back your eyesight."

What?

"What?!"

"Shhh" he shut my mouth with his hand "they'll hear you!"

Ok. Keep calm. If this works, nothing will matter.

Except for saving Inori.

"I have this new… laser beam, you could call it. I made it just for you."

"How does it work?" I started trembling from the excitement. I could do it!

"Wooo calm down. It's not going to work if you move."

"What do I have to do?" I asked him.

"Just sit like this" he straightened my back. "And open your eyes as wide as you can"

I did as he said.

I couldn't see where or how he was standing, but I straightened my back, I looked the direction I thought his voice had come from, and I opened my eyes as wide as possible.

I have a rising feeling it wasn't him, that it's someone else. His voice is different, relaxed instead of determined, and his way of speaking greatly differed from the last time I had really spoken with him.

I decided to avoid thinking about it: if he is going to restore my eyesight and give me a chance to go back to how I had been, it won't matter who he is, much less what he wants: I can just reject his request.

"Hold still. This might tickle a little." he said.

I remained still.

Waiting.

Waiting for something to happen.

Waiting for the one thing I needed.

And then it happened.

I felt a jolt of electricity run through my spine as I started seeing not black, but red. What was happening?

The colors danced, made fun of me, grew and shrank, until they piled into a neat square mosaic.

'What's the meaning of this?'

Then it went away… and the darkness started to… look less dark. I began to slowly see some light, not random colors: actual figures and shapes.

I was…

 _I am…_

"There we go. It should fix itself in a matter of minutes." he told me.

I still can't make out objects, but I can see a white light… was I looking at a skyscraper? Even if this might be all I have, I can somehow manage to make it.

 _I can save her._

I turned towards where I thought Shibungi was standing and I hugged him.

"Thank you so much! You granted me a second chance in life!"

"I would use it well if I were you," he told me, "After all, Inori isn't going to free herself."

I knew what he was talking about. I could not let her die again... I already know, after the union, she _will_ revert back to Mana… I have no choice but to go stop Da'ath.

"Now sleep. You can't get out of here unless you sleep for some time… wake as early as you can, at 6 am there is no patrol going around… it's probably your best chance to escape." Shibungi told me "It's also going to take your eyes a little to get used to the light and everything: don't force it too much."

I smiled again. Although I couldn't see very well, it was still something. Even if I stayed like this. Even if I might never been able to tell who's who… I don't care. I have a chance to save Inori. That is all I ask for. That is all I need.

"Thank you, Shibungi. I will go save her. Even if it's the last thing I do."

Without me noticing, the light started to fade away…

'I'm so tired…'

"Yawn…" I fell asleep like a rock.

"Good night, Shu. When you wake up, make sure you fall in our trap."


	5. Chapter 5 - The Healer

"Yawn"

I woke up and looked around. I still feel drowsy, probably because it's one of the first times I've slept properly. My bed is no longer hard as it was before; now it feels soft, probably because I stayed on it so long... It's white, like silk. The hospital room is quite big: there's a bleeping noise in the air, probably coming from the monitoring machines. The wires are hanging from to machine to my body, some electrodes are attached to my chest, and I feel them, as cold as lifeless steel, close to my heart, which is also cold.

The room itself isn't too small, in fact, it's quite grand: there are two armchairs sitting in front of me, and there's a wide screen TV on the wall in front of my bed. It's a single room.

Then I look outside and… wow.

The skyscrapers are as tall as ever; few of them have lights turned on here and there. Some are red, some blue, and one is green – I never thought there could be such colors in skyscrapers. There aren't many people in the scrapers thought – I see a worker that, apparently, has fallen asleep and now lies on their desk, as if… waiting for something. It's also to be expected, since normally, the most people should be in the main square down below – which I can't see since I'm so high up.

I take a deep breath and I look, once more, at the sleeping employee. Wait, what?

How can I see?

And then it hit me.

'I can't stay here anymore' I told myself

I tried standing up, but my legs felt sore. I definitely wasn't in the best of conditions. And slowly pain built up – as if something wanted me to stay there. Why?

 _"Shu…Come save me…"_

Inori. I need to save Inori.

I try getting myself together, and standing up, but my legs won't allow it. I start seeing black spots on my blanket – wait. They're not on the blanket!

Before I can protest, I loose consciousness, and slip inside my dreams…

When I open my eyes again, I'm no longer in the hospital room: I'm… in a warzone! There's choppers flying here and there, smoke rising from a car, that seems to have been expensive before getting banged up. There are remainders of some walls from what I can see. There a destroyed scrapers almost everywhere, none have lights on, none have sleeping workers in them. I'm out in the open, and I have no clue what's happening. I try standing up, but I only manage to lift my back off the ground. I look to my left and… blood. And someone… someone is just a few meters away from me. It's a girl…

I try to get closer, but then I feel a surge of pain in my chest, on my legs, everywhere…

I look down… and… blood. I am soaked in blood, my right hand looks like it was skinned while I was unconscious, and my chest – my chest has a deep wound. I touch it, and it sends a shockwave of pain in my entire body.

'I…I…' I whisper faintly.

Where did this happen? When did it happen? I forgot, I don't know. I want to remember, remember who that girl is, and how I managed to get a hole in my chest.

And then… I hear a scream.

The girl on the floor next to me places her hand above her chest, her head still too low for me too see, and then, she raises it.

'Oh no. Hare.'

It's Hare, with her Void in her hand, that is lying in front of me. It's her, there's no mistaking it: her brown chocolate eyes and the red ribbons on her hair: it's her. It's her. The thought makes me break apart from the inside. She fixes her eyes on me, although I am not sure if she's looking at me or not: I tried standing up, failed, and ended up on the floor again. We share a long stare, and then she says, almost too faintly for me to hear it,

"Shu"

I look at her, stunned. I… this… how… why… This had never happened before. I had seen her in my arms, shatter, but never, had I seen her as she was now, a couple of meters from me.

"No… Please…" she says, just before placing her hand on her chest again.

'She's wounded. She shouldn't move' I think to myself, 'Else, it'll make her… bleed…'

"Don't move…" I tried saying, but the words came out as wind.

And then… Then she looks at her healing Void. At that one instrument I had always thought only she could have, since she was the only truly kind person that I knew. A big explosion distracts me: one of the choppers must have been taken down; there is still smoke in mid air. When I look back at Hare, she is… extending out her arm. Her Void comes to life, and it starts to come towards me.

And then… Then I hear a voice. Hare's voice.

"Shu. When you were little, did you ever read a book called 'The Kind King?"

I heard the words, but I… I couldn't see her mouth move. I heard her voice, but it came from nowhere.

She continued, "It's about a king, who is so good to his people, he gave them all the money and all the land they could ever want," she says, while her Void wraps me and lifts me in the air.

"Until… he gave his hole kingdom away."

Blood started coming out of Hare's wound quickly, so quickly it took me some time to process it.

"He'd done what they wanted… but they hated him for it."

No. No. No. No this scene, not her, not now, no…

"It's silly… but I really love that story book king. I think… he was my first love." Her eyes started becoming glassy, she looked like she was on the verge of tears, "And you… remind me so much of him. You're kind to people, and all they ever do is hurt you."

Tears started welling up in my eyes. She was the only person that had truly understood me other than Inori; no one had ever believed in me like she had. How could I not cry? This seemed more real than reality itself; I knew, if I only reached out, I could touch her hand and feel her warmth.

"I know that… you're going to be a great king! I've always known."

The first tears started escaping my eyes.

"Let me go!" I wanted to scream, "Let me stay beside you, Hare! Let me die with you!"

And then… machine gun noises. Bullets hit the ground and break Hare's Void. She falls down to the ground, and I struggle in my position: I can't move from here, but I want to… And then I see her hand moving.

"Not yet…" she says.

Just as she says that, her Void finishes healing me, and I break free of it, and run towards her.

"Just in… time." crystals start covering her face.

I drop to my knees, my eyes watery, and embrace her. I hold her tight, as tight as I can, and I start crying. All the emotion piled up inside me… Hare, whose birthday I had celebrated not long ago… was here, in front of me, dying.

And with her last breath, she said: "You have… my heart… forever."

Then her void vanished, leaving behind no traces. I knew she had just… she had just…

Anger swirled up inside me, so intense, the tears could not make it rest. They could no wash away what had happened to Hare, just like they could not wash away what had happened to Inori: it was… them. They GHQ and their stupid plans that killed Hare!

Then, I felt my voice return to my body. And, as soon as I did, I screamed, as loud as my lungs were capable of letting me, "NO! HARE!"

Then, crystals covered her body… her chest, her shoulders, and then… her face. She disintegrated into a million pieces, and flew in the wind.

I was about to break down and cry, when I heard Hare's faint voice, almost impossible to hear, say the last thing I would ever hear it say:

"Shu… Don't blame yourself anymore."

The warzone started fading into black, the skyscrapers started crumbling, everything fell down, down in an endless abyss, until there was nothing left, and I was wrapped in darkeness.

When everything had dissappeared I heard:

"Go and save Inori for me."


	6. Chapter 6 - Evasion

**A short note before I start:** I am really sorry for the time this took, I was really busy... inspiration came back little ago, and I started working nonstop on it. Hope you like it! 3

I wake up, terrified. My heart is racing faster than Ayase ever did with her Void. The thumping resounds in my entire body; it feels like my heart had gone up to my throat. I almost can't breathe. There's a loud noise in the air; soon, I noticed it was I. My ears were ringing from the stress overload.

'Breath deeply. In, out'

I took a couple of deep breaths, and managed getting rid of the noise.

'What the hell was that dream about?'

Hare… I still remember the last time I celebrated her birthday. It seemed like years ago, yet, not more than a year could have passed. Before I noticed, my eyes started to cloud; I almost couldn't see anything anymore. Tears. 'Why did she have to leave me?' I keep asking myself, everyday. 'Why did she have to save me? Why does everyone that loves me end like this?' I can't find an answer to this question. The tears began falling from my eyes onto the bed, to then disappear in the white blanket. Hare had always been innocent… her Void was kind, she was a good person, and never did anything as evil as I did. She hadn't deserved that death. And then it hit me, like a tsunami.

"Shu… That's why I love you," she had told me.

"Shu…go save Inori" were her last words.

"Wait for me, Inori." I told to myself, quietly, "I am coming to get you back"

My legs are still shaky and hard to control, but I don't care. I am the strongest, I am the one making decisions from now on. With all my frustration and anger, I forced my feet on the floor, and stood up. My legs felt like marble that had aged millions of years. I immediately noticed that the hospital was extremely quiet: although it was still dark outside, it sounded unnaturally empty.

"This is for you, Hare. Thank you."

I started running, barefoot. 'I don't care if I'm barefoot, as long as I can run again.' I got out of the room and into the main hall of the hospital. I keep running in the hall, I can't stop.

'There is no way I am stopping even a second anymore! I'm back on my feet. I'm running. I have something I must do. And I am not going to back down. That is the one thing I can't do right now.'

The hall looks so magical to me: all the geometry and shapes involved, the colors that surround me shine, I start getting a glimpse of the sun slowly rising every time I go by an hospital room. How long was it I didn't feel… feel… _alive?_

I came to a sudden halt after remembering what Shibungi had told me.

"…At 6 am there is no patrol going around."

What time was it? I glanced to my left and right, I didn't see any clock; only white walls and a black speaker for announcements.

'There must be a clock around here!'

I started running again, knowing I can't afford losing a single minute. As I was running, I saw a clock on a wall. I quickly glanced as I sprinted by.

It's 5:53am. Almost 6. But not 6 yet. I smile. I might make it.

From there, I made a sprint for the stairs. I smashed the locked door open with brute force and started jumping and running down.

'How long are these…?!'

5 minutes is the time it took me to finish the stairs. I got out of the last staircase door and ran. The skyscraper is crystal-like: the ground floor is entirely see-through. The interior contains high-class furniture… square sofas and armchairs, all white. White, exactly like the color I was not going to be like when I ended this madness. Such irony.

 _Amazing… how could I miss something like this…_

And I got out of the scraper… just as the sun had half risen from the horizon and… wow. I haven't seen something like this in a long time. It was slowly emerging from the middle of two other scrapers, and it looked as beautiful as ever. The sky's colored red, the light filtrates through the clouds, and I feel…alive. It was worth to keep struggling all these years if I could see this one last time… and if I got a chance to fix a mistake I had made.

I look around: no one is walking by, only a couple of dudes who look like they spent the whole night out drinking. They shouldn't give me any problem; probably to them I just look normal. And then I realized. Normal. I'm not exactly looking like I'm normal.

I'm wearing the white vest the nurse fit on me in the hospital… my other clothes are gone. I simply _can't_ go around like _this_. I will get caught.

'Ok. First things first, I need to find clothes. No matter how bad. Where could I go?'

I evaluated the situation:

Viable options:

1: 24/7 store…nope, too risky, cameras;

2: Clothes trash collector…I could, but might attract attention because of the odor, and I don't want to be noticed;

3: my apartment… the only viable option

But…where is it? And where am I right now? Too many questions and too few answers, but no time to stand around.

'I guess I'll just walk around and look for the skyscraper. I don't have much to lose.'

Except for my underwear, but I think I may want to hold on to that.

The streets are so quiet, it seems unreal. Normally, I think, there must be cars going around here, a lot of them, when it's not 6am. The streets are wide, big enough to accommodate 4 cars at a time. There are parking slots for residents of the area, but other than that, there is no presence of a moment in which the world is still… the roads lead to a million places, I don't know where I might end up if I walk the wrong road. It's a little weird how it presents itself… the world after darkness. It's not… repulsive, but also not welcoming.

It feels like there is something missing, and that something is hidden so well, no one will ever be able to find it.

I realize I was standing around for too long. I start running again.

Most of the shops have their blinds down, however, there are a few places that have things on display. Only clothes. How I wish I could grab them.

Then, I look in front of me and…

"Wow. _Sugoi!_ *"

* = Amazing in Japanese, sorry, totally had to do that! It sounds seriously good!

A tall skyscraper was just in front of me. It looks like an actual blade, since it has no irregularities, and it was triangular at the top. It is almost transparent, and has neat red metal stripes that were supposed to highlight the meaning of its flatness. It looked almost like Inori's void.

And near the top… it reads: XERSDA.

'No time to lose!'

I sprinted towards the building. When I came close, to my surprise, I found the door was open. Sure, being an automatic door there was no way to close it if not shut it down and, by doing this, keep all the people locked inside, but was keeping it open really necessary? What if some thief was around? The hall has a huge flat screen TV, with many armchairs and sofas located nearby. The reception was a white marble table, shiny, and really clean. There was an elevator on the left of the reception, and an emergency staircase on the right. I knew which one I would use, even if it would take me longer! And I catch glimpse of a security camera.

Fuck.

I can't stop for that though. I need to get my clothes and get out, I have no time.

'If I take the elevator I might be noticed: I'll take the stairs. Anyways, I'm on the 3rd floor.'

I shoved the staircase's door open and started running up. The stairs looked old, though I doubt they are. Probably no one uses them anymore. Even I learnt how to use the elevator.

"Just press the lowest button on the right." Ayase had told me.

After 3 floors of stairs, I got to the third floor, and slammed to door open. To my surprise, I found a door with the nametag おうま、しゅ (Ouma, Shu) right next to it. I don't need to investigate. The nametag has a 'golden' feeling to it, but I can't exactly tell why. The door is, clearly, impossible to infiltrate. I have no idea how Ayase was able to make me think this door was a normal one… I mean, the lock felt wooden and all at touch, but only on the outside, I could tell it was steel on the inside. Same for the lever. I need to find a way to get in. I have to. I tried remembering something that would help me; something I could use to open this door. Then I got it.

"Remember, if you lose the key, you just need to open the secret compartment under the carpet. You do it like this…"

I immediately reached to the carpet and took it off. There was a small compartment for sure, but not visible to the eye: the floor was not in marble but something else on this floor, so I can't see it, but when I touch it I should.

Then, my hand found something that felt like a switch. I turned it. A small compartment opened, in it, a key. I rushed to open the door. After the 2 usual turns, it made a noise **click** , and it opened. I stepped into my apartment, really seeing it for the first time. And… wow, it looked so much like the older one. A big living room with the kitchen right next to it, and the bedroom close to the washroom. With washroom, I mean toilet. A big toilet. Much bigger than I had expected. I look around, amazed. I look at the sofa… I never really had sat on it, there was some dust accumulated on it. This image. This image had everything I had grown up with. And now, I need to get what I hold dearest back. I got in my room, grabbed a white t-shirt and some jeans, a dark red sweater with a zip up and I put them on in a hurry. Just as I am about to leave, I see an image of Inori there, sitting on a speaker next to my TV. And she's smiling. I get out of the door and close it behind


End file.
